This will be an in-class essay exam—one that asks you to synthesize your reading over the entire semester.  It will be both historical and comparative.  I shall ask you to relate each of these theorists to their historical circumstances, to their intellectual milieux, and to the social changes that they tried to understand.  I shall also ask you to compare the theorists that we have studied, showing the differences and similarities of their approaches.

• The exam is a closed book exam. You may bring one 5×8 card with notes to the exam room.  (Yes, you may use both sides of the card.  You may even print on the edges, if you wish.  You may bring a magnifying glass, if you need one.)
• The exam will be taken during the regularly scheduled final exam period. NO EXCEPTIONS!

In preparation for the exam, each of you should bring two questions to the last day of class on which you would be willing to be tested.  Bring copies for everyone, including me.  I shall review the questions over Reading Days, adding to them if I think that something major has been left out.  The exam questions will be drawn from the pool of your questions and of mine.

I can almost guarantee that one of the exam questions will be:

• “Is Spickard a Marxist, a Durkheimian, a Weberian, or a Du Boisian?  Justify your answer.”
  • I don’t care all that much about which you think I am.  I do care that you justify you answer by using theory, not just how much time I spend on each of the four thinkers, how enthusiastic I seem to be when I’m talking about them, etc..